REVIEW: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Ep.#1-3)

REVIEW: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Ep.#1-3)

This review is something I’ve been putting off for a while now, but it seems like I can’t go two days without being asked about the Phoenix Wright anime. It also seems like this is what people have been wanting to read while coming to EXP Grind.

Before I get into my thoughts let me make a few things straight, I’m not going to go over the plot of the anime or games, I’m not going to reference the websites I’ve been looking at, nor am I going to spoil anything from the series. These are my thoughts and my thoughts alone.

What to say… When I heard that Phoenix Wright was going to get an anime, I was excited. One of my favorite game series was getting something that should’ve been done years ago, but at the same time my hopes where too high. It was hard to believe anything being said on the internet, but the child in me was willing to believe anything. As the days got closer my mind would freak out. It got hard for me to even think of anything else at the time.

Then the first episode came out, I was at work at the time, so the only thing I could do was download the episode and wait. I watched the clock slowly reach 6PM, and in the fastest possible motions I could muster from myself, I closed the store I work at, rushed home, took off my shoes, hopped into my bed, and pulled out my phone. I quickly looked for the download and with in the first minute my mind went from excited 7 year old to looking at the animations of the episode. In other words I was happy that I had the episode, but I had no idea how to feel about what I was watching.

Now, don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that Phoenix Wright is bad, it’s just it feels like the animation team could’ve done a better job. You can clearly see that they took a few shortcuts when animating by making a few scenes three to four frames. Along with that, the anime has this kids show vibe to it. What I mean by this is that the anime shows who the killer was at the beginning of the episode. Like they think you won’t find out who the killer is throughout the episode.

I waited a few weeks to put down what I thought, because at the time it felt as if the first episode wouldn’t help me write a review for the anime. I waited to watch the second and third episodes to get a better idea of what to think of the anime. At this point I’m not going to say don’t watch it, by all means do watch it. My perspective of the show can be different from yours.

I only hope that in the next few months they decided to not show the killer at the beginning and let the people watching who haven’t played the games figure it out. I’m fine with the kid TV show feel, it makes me want to grab a bowl of cereal and sit in my pajamas–something that I haven’t done in years. I’m not going to stop watching the anime I’m actually going to keep watching and to iterate: you should go watch it as well.

I’m going to be revisiting Phoenix Wright again at the end of the year and my opinion might change, but to sum up how I feel about the anime is: all I can say is that I’m still not sure how to feel about it even now. I’m happy that Phoenix Wright got an anime, but only time can tell as to how I feel about this adaptation.